speaking of tuning, which do you all prefer on your marimba. 440 or 442?
from what i gather, the marimba is tuned to partial harmonics. the root, 10th, and octave above. is this correct? the 10th, or major 3rd one octave above the root.
and would it be possible to have the partials tuned to a minor 3rd instead of the major 3rd(10th). or would this not sound correct?
i'm just curious to see if a tuning like this would make a marimba sound warmer/darker overall.
thanks a lot,
mike
I used to insist on A440 and had my former Yamahas (A442) retuned. Now, however, with almost every manufacturer except Marimba One changing to A442, I am more accepting.
As I understand it, the Deagan IMSO "King George" (1935/36) marimba was tuned with a minor 3rd. Michael Rosen (Oberlin) had Adams tune a set of bars with the minor 3rd, but was apparently not satisfied with the result.
WM
I'm sticking steadfastly to A=440, but I hasten to add that the lion's share of my marimba work is either in a voice/percussion duo, or in a jazz/pop context. In the voice/perc duo, it's obviously a non-issue. Recently, I asked a number of bass players I work with - again, in the pop/jazz arena - if they had seen a switch to A=442 in their work. Without exception, they informed me that they continue to stay at 440; synths are calibrated to 440, tuners are set to 440, etc. (yes, both can be recalibrated to 442, but it's just not worth the hassle).
Of course, in clubs and restaurants, you're often hard-pressed to find a piano that's even in tune with itself (I'm reminded of seeing Gary Burton perform about fifteen years ago, and the piano at this little club in Western Massachussets was so far out of tune, Gary actually did a little retuning of it himself during the break!), so the question of 440 v. 442 becomes kind of moot. As always, YMMV...
JW
Just as a side note, Marimba One will tune to either 440 or 442. The difference is more marked depending on the range... some string quartets now (ie Penderecki String Qt) will tune to A442, but its still a personal thing.
Mike, To avoid replying to each "reply" below (which I started doing)....
When making new bars the partial that is tuned to a "3rd" could be tuned to quite a few different notes- within reason- 2nds, 4th, 5th,..It depends on the bar size, room for the arch, etc etc...but it would sound pretty strange.
The partial that is tuned to the double octave could also be tuned to other pitches. (The pre-1926 Deagans were not harmonic tuned at all, and many of them sound terrible in the lower range because the arch shape gave harmonics like M7ths, m7ths, m9ths, M9ths, etc.)
ALL marimbas between 1926 and the late 1970's were tuned with minor 3rds, or no 3rd at all. Major 3rds are now the norm. Minor 3rds-tuned marimbas DO give a darker sound, as Rosen suggests. When I make bars for people it's no problem to tune the harmonics to match their instrument.
90% of my customers in the US request A-440, if that is any indication of anything. Most vibe players ask me to lower their vibes to A-440. Most European customers ask for A-442 or even A-443.. Most Japanese buyers of my glocks want A-442. Australian customers mostly ask for A-442..etc etc.
So....have fun.
Bill Youhass
Fall Creek
